


Between the Covers

by starraya



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/F, if you don't know what the Victorian euphemism "tipping the velvet" means, you're about to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 05:33:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11525580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starraya/pseuds/starraya
Summary: The question has played on her mind for days now. Tonight, Bernie summons up the courage.“Serena?”“Mmm?” Serena doesn’t look up.“Why are there naked women on the cover of your book?”“Because that’s the illustration.” Serena flicks the page.Silence descends around them and Serena doesn’t raise her eyes, until:“Are you reading historical lesbian porn?”





	Between the Covers

****The question has played on her mind for days now. Tonight, Bernie summons up the courage.

  
“Serena?” Bernie sets down The Lancet in her lap. She turns to her partner sitting next to her in bed.

  
“Mmm?” Serena doesn’t look up.

  
“Why are there naked women on the cover of your book?”

  
“Because that’s the illustration.”

  
Serena remembers the other copy of the book in the library, remembers a distinctly yonic pattern of opened oysters, remembers the pearls within them. Serena feels a lick of heat creep up her back. Ignores it and flicks a page, becomes engrossed once more within the book. Silence descends around them and Serena doesn’t raise her eyes, even though she can feel Bernie’s stare, until:

  
“Are you reading historical lesbian porn?”

  
Bernie squints at the blurb of Serena’s book.

  
“Maybe,” Serena shrugs.

  
“Maybe? How is that a grey area?”

  
“Well, it’s not _just_ sex. There’s a girl, likes the theatre, likes a girl at the theatre, runs off to the playhouses of London with her. Quite fascinating really, the Victorian underground lesbian scene.”

  
“There was a Victorian underground lesbian scene?”

  
“Yes.” Bernie doesn’t look convinced. Serena rolls her eyes. “Now, come on dear, I rather think there’s been lesbians as long as there’s been women.”

  
“I know that. I’ve just never heard of a similar book before. Is it good?”

  
Serena nods. Her eyes drift back to the pages. She’s slightly annoyed at Bernie’s interruption – just when things are getting exciting, and by exciting, Serena read online that there’s a strap-on scene in the next chapter. She’s wondered what it’s like. Wondered whether Bernie –

  
“It is easy to slip into? I mean you normally find it hard –”

  
“Bernie.” Serena stops her. “I’m trying to …”

  
“Yes, sorry.”

  
But Bernie is right. Serena sometimes does find it difficult to get into a book, to switch off her mind from the craziness of day to day life, but now she’s distracted for another reason. Bernie’s words have stoked a flame in her. Serena struggles to concentrate, to picture the words in the book instead of …

  
Serena squirms, ever so slightly. She straightens her back. Pretends as if she is merely readjusting her position to carry on reading.

  
Bernie angles her head to peer at the spine of the book, even though she’s read the title a dozen times since Serena begun reading the book. There’s another question she’s troubled by.

  
“You said it’s about the theatre. Is that what the –”

  
“No.” Serena knows how the sentence ends. She presses her bookmark in between the book, closes it. “It’s not.”

  
“Then what?”

  
Serena can’t help herself. Can no longer tamp down her arousal. She places the book on her nightstand, places The Lancet on top of that and in one swift movement straddles Bernie. One-week later Serena will cajole Bernie into watching the BBC miniseries with her, but for now decides a physical demonstration is in order.

  
Later, much later, Serena will reach down to pick up the book off the floor. At one point in the night, they knocked it off the nightstand. To her frustration she will find they also knocked the bookmark out.

  
Bernie will watch her lover and laugh. Crack a very bad joke about tipping the book, _Tipping the Velvet_ , on its side.

  
Serena will raise an eyebrow, suspiciously.

  
“You already knew, didn’t you?”

  
“I may have googled the term yesterday. Curiosity got the –”

  
Serena will swat Bernie with a pillow. Remind her: “Curiosity killed the cat.”

  
Bernie will reach for her own pillow to hide underneath, to defend herself. “But satisfaction brought –” 

  
Serena will swat Bernie with a pillow again.

 

The next morning Jason will look up from his bowl of cereal, at Bernie and Serena. “I heard noises last night from your bedroom. They woke me up and now I only had seven and an half hours of sleep instead of the recommended eight.”

 

Bernie will blush beetroot. Serena will fumble with the pendant at her neck. They were quiet, to the best of their abilities, having sex last night.

 

Jason continues: “Auntie Serena, Auntie Bernie, were you having a pillow fight?”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Maybe.”


End file.
